New NCP chief wants more seats in next polls

Nationalist Congress Party in Goa today said that it will ask for more seats in the next year''s Assembly elections considering that their strength is growing in the state.

"During the last pre-poll alliance with Congress, we got six seats. This time, our claim will be on more seats since we are growing in the state," NCP Goa unit chief Surendra Sirsat told reporters.

Sirsat, former president of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), took over the reigns of the NCP in Goa from today after the party high command accepted incumbent Jose Philip D''Souza''s resignation letter.

He, however, refused to elaborate on the number of constituencies that the NCP will be claiming.

"We have a right to contest for the seats where our presence is strong," he said, adding that the party is yet to decide whether to forge pre-poll alliance or not.

"There is still time for the elections, these decisions would be taken at the right time after considering the situation prevailing that time."

The former Speaker of Legislative Assembly conceded that he has an uphill task of keeping entire NCP party together.

The party has seen intense infighting which spilled on the streets recently.

D''Souza, the outgoing NCP president had to resign after he a public brawl with his colleague Fransisco Mickey Pacheco in the run up for the municipal elections.